06-17-2014
• zerohedge.com
China's, or the place where increasingly more of China's $25 trillion in bank assets are being parked: the UK (specifically London). Using then available data, the answer was still a toss-up, even if the divergence in directions was quite clear.

Earlier today, we finally got the official data from the UK's Office for National Statistics, and we politely retract our question, as rhetorical as it may have been. The reason: there is no contest - the UK's housing bubble has officially slammed China's, and the result is nothing short of a knock out.

The Office for National Statistics said on Tuesday that the cost of purchasing a home rose 9.9 per cent in the year to April across the UK, with a double-digit growth rate of 10.4 per cent in England.

The rise, including a 2 per cent gain in April alone, comes as the BoE's Financial Policy Committee meets on Tuesday to consider imposing restrictions on risky mortgage lending in an attempt to cool the market. The FPC will, however, only announce any decisions it takes on June 26.